IELTS Writing Task 2 Sample 71 - The characteristics we are born with have much more influence on our personality

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IELTS Writing Task 2/ IELTS Essay:

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

Research indicates that the characteristics we are born with have much more influence on our personality and development than any experiences we may have in our life.

Which do you consider to be the major influence?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

You should write at least 250 words.

Model Answer 1: In today's modern world, numerous researches have been conducted around the globe in order to improve the personality and the development of an individual. There is one recent research which has clearly shown that the personality and development of a person are highly likely to depend on the characteristics that they are born with as compared to other experiences in their life. However, I believe experiences of a person will have a greater impact on one's personality and development.

Undoubtedly, if we could utilise the experience we gain from working or travelling abroad, we would be more mature and more open-minded. Whenever we arrive in a new place, we can learn the cultures and traditions from the locals in order to acquire more information about the lifestyles of others and eventually become more knowledgeable. Besides, we may learn how to respect and not to criticise the customs of other races which may be slightly or totally different from ours. By doing so, we can actually get benefited by being able to look at the problems from a various perspective.

We may also become more self-independent than others if we live in a harsh environment when we were young. To illustrate, in China, many children have to sacrifice their studies and come out to work since they were small. They are proved to have the ability to make more mature decisions on their own in a research conducted in China between those who are affluent and those who live in poverty. Moreover, people who face a lot of hardships in their lives will have a detailed plan of what to do next. For instance, they will organise their expenditure well, which in other words, they will not spend money on unnecessary things, especially those luxurious items. Therefore, it is apparent that experiences gained from a various field in their lives have a huge influence on one's personality and development.

In conclusion, I am of the opinion that life experience has major consequences on our personalities and developments than the characteristics that we are born with. We will be able to think from different perspectives and make wise decisions if we use the experiences that we gained in our daily live.

(Written by - Lee Wing Qeen )

Model Answer 2: Many scientists believe that genetic characteristics have more influence on the human’s personality than some experiences in life. Although genetics has some effect on our characters, I believe that the influence of life experience is more significant, and the following essay will discuss this in details.

On the one hand, it is true that everyone is unique, as they are born with different characteristics. While some people are born with an easy going character, others might be born with a melancholic one. People could not choose their genetic characters, and these characters will develop more as they get adults. Therefore many experts believe that genetic characters have a significant effect on a person’s identity.

On the other hand, other people believe that experiences in life have more influence in our life than genetic characters. Communities, family condition, education and work experiences have a deeper effect on a person’s character. For example, a person might be born as a sanguine person, but raise in a broken home family. As a consequence, he could become a pessimistic person when he grew up. Another example is that a man might be a positive person, but as he spent so much time with negative friends, he could become as just one them.

In conclusion, I agree that genetic characters have some influence on a person’s personality, but I think that life experiences are giving more significant influence to our personality. Therefore it is important for us to be selective in choosing the place to live, workplace and friends.

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Genes undoubtedly influence the human characteristics, mental development and behaviour and scientific research proved that we inherit a lot of features at the time of our birth. However, it is also an established fact that our parents, relatives and life experiences also have major influences on shaping our characters. Nurture and life experience, in my opinion, have greater influence in our life.

On the one hand, though we inherit several important characteristics, many of them change over time. Thus we cannot say that someone would surely become a scientist only because his father was a great scientist. Similarly, we cannot outcast a child only because his father was a murderer. From this regards, someone’s character is shaped by the environment he grows in, type of lesson he is taught by parents, relatives and teacher and the choices he makes in his life. It is often said that parents have a great role to play and the future of a child is determined by them to a great extent. Education, economic status, family bonding, religion, culture, politics and environment are also some major influences in the way we live our life.

Again, a child may genetically inherit strong and kind features but abuse in his childhood will affect his personality to be aggressive or introvert. Each one of us has the good and the evil inside us but the subsistence and choices determine which one we develop more. The surrounding circumstances also are heavy influences in our personality. So governments in a country should emphasise on improving society by fighting the illiteracy and increasing the awareness of people through the materials that are represented in the mass media, as any message will share in creating the personality.

In short, we can’t deny that we inherit certain characteristics in our gene. However, our experience in life has far more influence in determining who we are.